PESHAWAR: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf leaders on Tuesday met different traders’ associations and transporters to pursue them to participate in the party’s planned protest on February 8.

Minister for higher education department Meena Khan Afridi, Peshawar district president Irfan Saleem, MNA Sher Ali Arbab, PTI’s deputy secretary information Ikram Khattana and other leaders were part of a delegation, which met the traders and transporters.

Talking to Dawn, Irfan Saleem said PTI delegation held a meeting with the transporters’ association at the General Bus Stand. He said the transporters assured the party that they would observe a strike on February 8, saying the transporters had also been affected by the federal government policies.

Similarly, he said that the PTI delegation also met the representatives of flour mills association and Muttahida Tajir Association, who assured that they would observe shutter down strike in different markets of the Peshawar.

According to a PTI press release, during these meetings, the delegation informed the business leaders that two years ago on February 8 the public mandate of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf was stolen in different constituencies of Islamabad, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, as a result of which the country was ‘suffering from severe economic instability’.

The PTI leaders said that the federal government’s ‘poor economic policies’ had hit the business community hard, resulting in inflation, tax burden and business insecurity. The PTI leaders called for cooperation and support from the business organisations to make the February 8 strike a success.

The business leaders said that it had become inevitable to rid the country of the federal government and that the business community was united for its ‘legitimate’ rights.

Published in Dawn, February 4th, 2026